Linlithgow Burgh Halls
The Linlithgow String Orchestra launched its 10th Anniversary Season last November with an enterprising new work – Engine Shed – by the idiosyncratic British composer Deborah Shaw. Fast forward to its Summer Concert last Sunday and, once again, the LSO was premiering a new commission, this time by the 21-year-old Kent-born composer, and recent graduate of Kings College London, Joe Cobb. Thus the Anniversary Season continued with the same sense of discovery that marked its opening.
This programme was mostly about “connections”, explained the orchestra’s unflappable conductor Bill Jones, elaborating in a colourful spoken narrative that weaved its connecting thread throughout the hour-long proceedings. Convenient historical landmarks stamped their influence: 500 years since the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge (full-bodied string arrangements of 16th century madrigals by Pierre Passereau and Anon Scots to open with); 400 years since the death of John Dowland (his The King of Denmark’s Galliard and the signature melancholy of his famous Lachrimae); and 250 years since the US Declaration of Independence (Aaron Copland’s riotous Hoedown).
Where these performances were credited with unflinching enthusiasm, at times lustily or baked with luxuriant texturing, there was also much to enjoy in the sentimental sweep of Mascagni’s much-loved Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana. A string arrangement of William Harris’ double choir motet Faire is the Heaven may have left those who know its choral manifestation (and Edmund Spenser’s flavoursome words) a little short changed, but it served its purpose in paving the way for the wild exuberance of Copland’s Hoedown.
As for Joe Cobb, what was the connection there? Jones, it transpired, in his former professional life as head teacher at a Kent prep school, had spotted the youngster’s musical talent at an early age and was delighted to see him now on the brink of a career in composition. Cobb had responded to the LSO’s commission with Calluna (meaning “heather”), a picturesque meditation on the soft unpredictability of a moorland landscape.
Its modal opening cast an instant spell, simple and questioning, leading to a conversation of textures that combined dense post-Delian harmonies with light and airy lyricism. The ending, atmospherically whispered, made its magical point.
In completing the official programme, Jones revealed yet another intriguing connection in anticipation of an encore especially devised in honour of Cobb, whose great uncle, it transpires, was the Paisley-born singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. Cobb was not only presented with an original Humblebums album (the folk rock band that featured both Rafferty and Billy Connolly), but the LSO then let rip with their own arrangement of Rafferty’s biggest hit, Baker Street, audience participation encouraged and briefly, politely, received.
Ken Walton